(ThedaCare: Appleton, WI) — John S. Toussaint, M.D., and Roger A. Gerard, Ph.D., have earned the prestigious Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award for their book, On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry (Lean Enterprise Institute Inc., 2010).

The award is given annually by The Shingo Prize for Operational Excellence, a nonprofit organization that is part of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. It recognizes a book’s contribution to increasing overall operational excellence.

In On the Mend, Toussaint, CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value and CEO emeritus of ThedaCare, and Gerard, chief learning officer for ThedaCare, candidly describe the triumphs and stumbles during a seven-year journey toward lean health care at their five-hospital health care system in northeastern Wisconsin. It’s an effort that continues today and that has dramatically reduced medical errors, improved patient outcomes, raised staff morale, and saved the system more than $27 million without layoffs.

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